Why Is Consultative Selling An Emerging and Important Practice?

You may have rarely come across this term or you have stumbled on this word time and time again. But for those who might not know this concept: Consultative selling is a deep-rooted concept of building a stable relationship with you and your budding prospects by attending to your clients’ needs and personalizing your products or services that suit their demands.

This concept may look very simple but it has a well-developed framework that has been updated through extensive research done in the field with time.

Any salesperson who strictly follows the model and practices of consultative selling develops a holistic and comprehensive understanding of their niche target audience or essentially the buyer’s needs. Following the pursuit of this model, they try to develop customized solutions that help to tap into the needs of their customers.

Is consultative selling a growing foundation for businesses?

Surprisingly, consultative sales techniques have been around us for a long time. Even though this concept as a whole has become popular in recent years with the growing awareness and education, it forms an essential part of marketing that has followed this approach since the 1970s. It first began as a sales strategy during the 1970s in Mack Hanan’s book on consultative selling and slowly regained traction in the marketing and sales industry. 

However, this concept was not carried forward as professionals thought of it as a prolonged series of sales approaches that might lead to procedural delays in the business.

Although, supporters of this tactic firmly believe that its outcome yields better results as it is more targeted towards their customer’s or buyer’s persona. Therefore, it has an improved chance of increasing sales. 

Consultative Selling Flips the Traditional Sales Approach:

Traditional and old practices have to be remodified and redefined with time as they tend to lose their place in today’s time due to the drastic changes in the competitive world! It is no surprise there that traditional practices have now grown stale but modern practices that have outgrown traditional practices no longer believe in the ‘one-size-fits-all’ notion.

This generation believes in customization and tends to march to the tunes of their own drums. The sales process in the consultative sales model begins with the customer’s needs and identifying specific problems in the products and services so that they can be tailored as per their demands and situations.

The development in the recent trends indicates that there is a subtle shift in the buyer-seller dynamic but this concept is implemented through all of its stages and can lead to a tremendous difference in sales and customer satisfaction.

Inbound Marketing Training is the perfect interlock with Consultative Selling:

In today’s world, there are no sales without marketing. With time, they are becoming more and more intertwined as both these fields aim to complement each other’s objectives and achieve a successful symbiotic relationship. As unique as the principles of consultative sales might sound, they seem to have a lot in common with inbound marketing that is one its peak ever since the advent of the digital age.

The reason why inbound marketing is successful is that it is on similar grounds of consultative selling that focuses on providing information and solutions to potential buyers, instead of simply promoting their products and services. Essentially the reason why inbound marketing and consultative selling go hand in hand.

The success of Consultative Selling:

Consultative Selling helps marketing representatives and business owners to qualify prospects through a more fast, thoughtful, and engaging process. By tailoring a product solution to match their needs, this tactic also reduces customer turnover in the long run.

It is alarming to know that only 56% of consumers trust businesses, according to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer. 

Therefore, through redefined practices and well-thought efforts, sales representatives have to start to put their customer’s needs first and then their products if they want to reap the profit for the long term. A great business dictum goes that with the heart for customers and head for the world, you have got to figure out what has to come first and the answer now becomes easy!

This sales process builds a trustworthy relationship with your clients above making quick sales makes logical sense. If you do not establish trust, you will never gain your loyal customers!

A study by Gallup reports that around 71% of B2B customers are now ready and willing to take their business elsewhere. Industries are failing to meet the needs of their customers and increase customer satisfaction which gravely impacts their conversions.

Whereas, consultative selling believes in “value-added selling” wherein the value is defined by the customer, unlike the product.  

Benefits of Consultative Selling:

• Helps in growing a loyal customer base
• Helps in retaining current customers by developing a trustworthy relationship that runs for a long term
• Gaining a hike in profits or increased revenue due to an ever-growing client base
• Helps in establishing a competitive advantage in the marketplace
• Allows for the development of skills such as effective communication, empathy, and active listening

As consultative selling is successful in unearthing a great deal of information about a prospect’s needs and thus can provide benefits to their customers and also increase their sales. This is the reason why this time-tested method will pay off in the long run because the entire model is built by keeping the values of customer relationships at the core.